Francis urges cloistered nuns to engage with the world

POPE FRANCIS has warned cloistered nuns that they should not entirely seal themselves away from the world, writes Hannah Roberts.

In a private audience with Religious from the Diocese of Rome on 16 May to mark the Year of Consecrated Life, the Pope was asked by a nun about the tension between concealment and visibility in the convent. He said the religious life was God’s call “towards both the hidden life and the need to be a sign”. Stressing that convents and monasteries should keep up with world events, the Pope said: “Your vocation is not a refuge; it is going on to the battlefield … in prayer.”

Francis urged nuns to be “like mothers”, merciful with sinners during the Jubilee Year of Mercy, which starts in December. The model to follow “is a mother who doesn’t flay her children. Otherwise she is a stepmother.”